Sunday, 5 October 2014

Science: Tree Identification

On Friday we took a basket and scissors and a field guide to North American trees and tried to identify the trees on our yard. Here's what we did:

-Used the vocabulary for different parts of trees (needles, cones, leaves, bark, etc) as we went around the yard collecting bits of each different kind of tree. This was as much a lesson in 'tree literacy' as in identification.

-Took photos of the bark of each tree so that could help us ID them.

-Sat down with our book to attempt to identify the trees. This purpose was not accomplished as Scout Kid mainly just enthusiastically flipped through exclaiming, "Hey, dat looks right!" But he really did enjoy looking through all the pictures and we talked more about different parts of a tree as we came upon them in the book.

-Gathered some fallen maple leaves and put them in a book to press. When they're done we'll glue them in Scout Kid's Nature Journal.

Sorry for the radio silence, by the way; I've been sick and haven't had the energy for anything more educational than Disney movies.